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For me as a priest, preparing the Christmas homily is a challenge unlike any other. Swarming crowds, once-a-year Mass goers, and visitors from out of town all add to the intensity of the moment. I so badly want to speak a word about Jesus, the Incarnation, etc., that really moves people from indifference to caring, […]

Catholics have had a roller coaster of a relationship with the American project from the beginning, sometimes seeming to be America’s greatest advocate and other times seeming to be her harshest critic. Seeing a Catholic at the podium was fascinating. What he prayed shook me to my core.

How fortunate was I to be the priest who got to be there at that moment? The image struck me of a father who catches a fish and reels it in right up to the edge of boat, and lets his small son bring the fish aboard to experience the joy of the catch. I felt like that son.

Can love win you football games? Just ask Clemson Coach, Dabo Swinney. In an emotional post-game interview after winning the 2017 college football national championship game, Coach Swinney spoke to ESPN’s Samantha Ponder. He said, “To see my guys fight, and to just believe…I told them tonight…I told them that the difference in the game was going to be love. It’s been my word all year, it’s been love. I said tonight we’re going to win it because we love each other. We’re going to love each [...]

In this final part of our series on Isaiah’s dream for those who climb the mountain of the Lord, we have perhaps the most lyrically beautiful and stunning words which sum up yet another benefit we receive when we keep climbing: that benefit is a kind of vision

In this series, we are listening to the prophet Isaiah tell us about God’s dream for creation: to draw all people to the mountain of the Lord’s house. In the previous posts, we’ve seen that when God draws us to himself, we become more like him: He marks us with justice and peace; death is […]

Catholic social teaching holds a “preferential option for the poor”, which means that people who lack basic means deserve special attention and love. They hold a kind of pride of place. Only look at how obsessed the media are with the rich and powerful for a reminder of the strangeness of this teaching. But the roots of the Church’s option for the poor are rooted in God’s option for the poor.